Miscellaneous. 483 



Polyparia, fishes' teeth, and considerable masses of calcareous wood 

 bored by Teredines. 



All these fossils were discovered by Mr. Kaye and a friend within 

 the last two years, and are entirely new to European palseontologists. 



In the neighbourhood of Pondicherry and bordering on the lime- 

 stone is a bed of red sand containing an immense quantity of the sili- 

 cified wood long known to collectors, 



Trkhinopoly. — The spot in this district from which Mr. Kaye pro- 

 cured his specimens he was not able to visit. The fossils occur also 

 in a limestone, preserve their shelly matter with occasionally the 

 colour, and belong principally to marine genera, but some are con- 

 sidered to be of freshwater origin. Cephalopods appear to be of very 

 rare occurrence, Mr. Kaye having obtained from the locality only 

 one fragment of a large Ammonite. Wood bored by Teredines is 

 also found in the limestone. 



Verdachellum . — From a calcareous rock near Verdachellum, forty 

 miles from Pondicherry, Mr. Kaye procured a variety of marine shells, 

 including a considerable number of Ammonites, considered by him to 

 be distinct from those found near Pondicherry ; also a few imperfect 

 Nautili and a few Echinidse, corals, &c. 



Among the testacea are several considered to belong to species 

 found in the Trichinopoly deposit, and a few believed by Mr. Kaye 

 to be identifiable with Pondicherry shells. This limestone is likewise 

 bordered by a red sand which contains specimens of silicified wood. 

 The formation was discovered only a short time before the writer 

 quitted India, and he consequently considers his collection as defec- 

 tive ; but he regards the deposit whence it was obtained as of interest, 

 affording, by its position and organic contents, a link between the 

 other two localities. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



NOTE ON SAXIFRAGA STELLARIS AND S. LEUCANTHEMIFOLIA, LAP. 



I HAVE gathered in the CEtzthal in the Tyrol the plant described 

 as S. leucunthemifoUu (Lap.) by Reichenbach and other German 

 botanists, and am quite of the opinion of Bertoloni (Fl. Ital. iv. 482) 

 that it is only a state of S. stellaris, L. The plant in question has 

 the leaves more oblong and dentate nearly to the base, the panicle 

 somewhat more spreading, the bracts (as in S. stellaris) for the most 

 part lanceolate, but the lower one sometimes obovate and dentate ; 

 the petals are slightly unequal, but this occurs (perhaps always) in 

 S. stellaris ; the capsule is quite the same, as are the seeds. As the 

 description of the latter in DeCandolle's ' Prodromus' may give rise 

 to mistakes, I may mention that the seeds of S. stellaris are oviform- 

 semilunulate (not ovato-subglobose), light brown (scarcely fuscous) 

 with longitudinal striae, which are beautifully fringed with elevated 

 semitransparent points. In a paper in the ' Ann. Nat. Hist.' ii. 35, 

 I mentioned a variety of S. stellaris found on Curslieve in Mayo, 

 which is much more different from the ordinary form ; it is much 



